It’s now the first day of October (and my brother’s birthday - happy birthday Tom!), so it’s time I started writing about the things I have done in September.

HOSPITAL VISIT AND IMMIGRATION OFFICE:
Well, I am now officially a legal alien! In September I had my health check up at the Yess Hospital near my apartment and once I was given the all clear it was time to visit the immigration office in Uijeongbu to fill out the necessary forms, and then a week or so later my alien registration card arrived!

DINNER WITH THE JUNG CHUL CLAN:
The night before I was supposed to go to the hospital I was invited out for dinner by Jong Sool (we later remembered I wasn‘t supposed to eat after 9pm the night before the hospital so the visit got delayed an extra day!).

There was me, Jong Sool, Sara, Grace, Sunny, Jin Sun, Mrs Cheung, Mrs Cheung’s husband and Jin Sun’s brother - so pretty much the whole family!

We were originally going to a restaurant to eat baby octopus, but I told them I didn’t like seafood so we went to a BBQ restaurant instead. The meat we had was marinated in something, and was absolutely delicious. We also had some cold soup and some cold noodles which were interested but not really my kind of thing!

COEX AQUARIUM:
I decided to take a trip to the COEX aquarium for something a bit different to do in Seoul. The aquarium is based in the COEX mall which is massive and somewhere I will be going back to, to have a proper look around!

I also found a nice Italian restaurant where I had some lunch before going into the aquarium. It was nice to find somewhere that felt a bit more ‘Western’!

The aquarium itself is pretty big and has a really good selection of sea creature, even a 2 headed turtle which was cute! There was also a weird and wonderful area where they used different items as fishbowls, including a washing machine and a toilet bowl!

There was also an underwater tunnel for the shark and other large sea creatures which was again quite impressive!

It only took about an hour to wander around, but it was a good afternoon out!

MEDIEVIL COLD MEDICINE:
The other week I got a cold, which everyone seem really concerned about - in a nice way!
The day we went to the immigration office Sara went into a chemist and came out with this small warm bottle of liquid which Jong Sool then put in my hand and told me to drink.

He then told me that it was a medieval Korean cold medicine made from plants etc and it tasted disgusting! It did seem to work though as I felt much better and my cold didn’t drag as much as they normally do!

RIVER TOUR:
Jill came up to visit for a weekend and we went into Seoul on the Saturday and took a boat trip along the Han river.

We got the subway to Yeouido island, which is an island in the middle of the Han river, and then got the ferry which does a round trip along the river lasting about 90 minutes.

The boat tour was really relaxing - it was a really nice day and the views along the river were great. You could see Seoul tower up on one of the nearby mountains and you could also see the mountains of Bukhansan National Park which form an impressive backdrop to the city.

They were building a new park area along the river which looked like it was going to be amazing when it’s finished so I will make sure I go back in a few months time when it’s all finished.

After the boat tour we went to Young Poong bookstore, which was one I hadn’t been to before. I really like this bookstore. It has a good selection of English books that are really well arranged, and there is a café with a Starbuck’s and comfy chairs to chill out in!

JUNIOR 1-2 FIGHT WEEK:
My Junior 1-2 class has been interesting the last week or so. It started off with 2 students punching each other, so I had to rearrange the whole class seating arrangements to keep them apart! The next lesson, Jerry fell asleep in class, so Mikey (a new student who is a bit of a pain) decided to wake him up by taking off his shoe and putting it in Jerry’s face. To say Jerry wasn’t pleased would be an understatement and the whole class had to be rearranged yet again.

Mrs Cheung must have given Mikey a good telling off though, as since then he has sat at the front of the class and been on good behaviour - let’s just hope it lasts!!

UIJEONGBU COFFEE SHOP:
Last weekend I decided against the journey into Seoul and instead went in search of a coffee shop in Uijeongbu that Jill had recommended.

It is indeed a very nice little coffee shop and I enjoyed a couple of chilled out hours sat on a very comfy sofa drinking nice big mugs of latte!! It felt like I was on holiday and I will definitely be going back, especially I think when it gets really cold and it will be a nice cosy little hideaway!